Publications
Partners
It was Oprah Winfrey who conducted the interview with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle that stunned the world and caused major strain between the couple and the rest of the royal family.
But following the death of the queen, the television mogul now sees a real chance for the rift to be healed.
She was quizzed on the matter when she appeared at the Toronto International Film Festival in Canada just days after Harry and Meghan had their headline-grabbing reunion with Prince William and Kate Middleton as they walked together in Windsor to look at the tributes that the British public had left for the princes' grandmother.
"This is what I think, I think in all families – you know, my father passed recently, this summer – and when all families come together for a common ceremony, the ritual of, you know, burying your dead, there’s an opportunity for peacemaking . . . and hopefully, there will be that," Oprah (68), who was appearing at the festival to promote a documentary about acting legend Sidney Poitier, told Extra.
Although she opened up to reporters, Oprah distanced herself from the topic when asked about it by her best friend, Gayle King, in an interview for CBS Mornings.
Gayle said many are pulling for a reconciliation between the brothers, especially after seeing them at Windsor Castle together. "What do you say?" Gayle asked.
Oprah replied, "I do not get into people's family matters, and I certainly . . . Ya know, everybody who has experienced some challenges in their families with in-laws or brothers or sisters knows how difficult some of those situations can be. I'm sure that for the royal family it's no different. And nobody consults me about their family business so I try to stay out of people's family business."
Earlier in their interview, Gayle had asked about Oprah’s jaw-dropping 2021 interview with Harry and Meghan, which took place after the couple stepped down as senior royals and left England for California.
In it, they made the shocking claim that when Meghan was pregnant with Archie a member of the royal family had speculated about the skin tone of their unborn son and that she had experienced suicidal thoughts and had received little support from her in-laws.
Gayle pointed out that this candid conversation is often described as a "bombshell interview" – and asked Oprah if she agreed with that characterisation.
"I was as surprised by the bombshell as everybody else," she admitted to Gayle. "I was doing an interview to offer them a platform to tell their story about why they left, and that was my number-one intention was just clarity on 'why did you leave?'"
Oprah continued: "And so some of the things that were revealed in that interview came as a surprise to me and those surprises are now referred to as 'bombshell'.
"But I didn't set out to do a 'bombshell' interview. I set out to do an interview, have a conversation that would allow them to tell their story."
SOURCES: MIRROR.CO.UK, DAILYMAIL.CO.UK, EXTRATV.COM
